News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and political leader Richard Leakey died at his home near Nairobi, Kenya, on 2 January. He was 77 years old. The son of Louis and Mary Leakey, whose fossil discoveries in East Africa helped prove that humans evolved in Africa, Richard Leakey added to their legacy with numerous important finds in Kenya, where … Read more
Babies born at two New York City hospitals in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic scored slightly lower on developmental tests at 6 months of age than did babies born before the pandemic, according to a new study. There were no significant differences between the groups in communication and problem-solving skills. The study, published in JAMA … Read more
Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images HELLO and welcome to the first issue of 2022 – and our predictions of what the year ahead holds. This magazine went to press as the omicron variant of the coronavirus was on the rise. As the pandemic enters its third calendar year, we look at the likely evolution of … Read more
Christopher Intagliata: Salvador Dali had a peculiar way of refreshing his mind—something he called “slumber with a key.” In his 1948 book “50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship,” he described how it worked. “You must seat yourself in a bony armchair, preferably of Spanish style,” he wrote. In your left hand, you were to clench a … Read more
On a summer day several years ago, Fabrice Lambert, a climatologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, met one of his colleagues in Quinta Normal, a 35-hectare public park in central Santiago. The researchers weren’t there for a picnic. They carried with them a drill-tipped tool known as an increment borer and a package … Read more
Congress came very close to giving U.S. researchers a funding windfall in 2021. But the Democrats’ narrow majority in both houses and a united Republican opposition doomed efforts to pass three major pieces of legislation, each one containing billions of dollars for research. However, science advocates are cautiously optimistic that lawmakers, who return to work … Read more
Introduction Science, Upendedby Andrea Gawrylewski Section 1: Biology & Evolution 1.1 Life Springs by Martin J. Van Kranendonk, David W. Deamer and Tara Djokic 1.2 The True Colors of Dinosaurs by Jakob Vinther 1.3 The New Origins of Technology by Kate Wong 1.4 The Meaning of Lichen by Erica Gies 1.5 … Read more
In December 1994 then former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop launched a national weight-loss campaign at a White House press conference, stating that obesity had become the country’s second-largest cause of death, “resulting in about 300,000 lives lost each year.” This marked the beginning of a long, influential life for the statistic. Pundits and … Read more
For a society constantly trying to over-extend, over-perform, and over-deliver, skipping out on sleep may be seen as the ultimate badge of productivity. It’s a lifestyle we most associate with the rich and powerful of the world, not to mention the hustle-drunk tech bros of Silicon Valley – but it’s not even a new thing. Even … Read more
In 1996 scientists announced the astonishing news that they’d discovered what they believed might be signs of ancient life inside a meteorite from Mars. In 2014 astrophysicists declared that they’d found direct evidence at last for the “inflationary universe” theory, first proposed in the 1980s. What these assertions had in common was that they were based on research by … Read more